Catholica Australia at present is largely put together by voluntary effort of the contributors and the editor. We are slowly attracting more and more support, including the substantial amount of financial support that we will require so that our work can really begin in earnest. Our principal objective is to be forming a community that is able to identify with and communicate in terms that might be attractive to those who have not been contactable by the other channels of communication the Church has been using. We publish lead commentaries from Saturday to Wednesday and our main forum is open to the public around the clock everyday. We also provide a more private members' forum where contributors are able to share their stories and personal struggles without being subject to the kind of attacks that are sadly too common in some parts of the Christian community when these stories are shared in more public places. In the long run we believe it will be the sharing of these personal stories that are one of the main ways of contacting the audience that we seek to serve. We welcome the support of all people of good will who are sympathetic to our objectives.

A Lenten reflection... Peregrinus' reflection today offers a gentle way of immersing us into this Lenten season of more heightened spiritual reflection and discernment. He argues that the process of discernment we all have to travel through is modelled for us by Christ. It is not a process that happens quickly. It is a slow process carved out in years rather than hours or days. [more]

Putting any suffering we might endure into a different context... Today we present a confronting commentary by Andew Kania. It is not for the feint-hearted and as indicated in today's email, I am not sure precisely how it fits within the context of the stated mission of Catholica. I am confident though that it might lead to a multi-faceted opening up of our conversation in the weeks ahead. There's stuff in what Andrew writes that I suspect you're not going to be able to still your minds from thinking about. [more]

Finding hope in the headlines... For some reason, which I am still trying to work out, I found the clutch of headlines delivered to us by CathNews this morning hope-filling. Some days I read the news headlines and find them simply boring or perhaps one story might be of significant interest and the others are neither here nor there as far as I am concerned personally. Then on other days I find myself frustrated or even exasperated at what some turkey has come out and said that has ended up making the news. Brian Coyne explores what he found "hope-filling" in today's headlines. [more]